The retreat from the A380 appears to be picking up steam, as airlines increasingly find the jumbo plane doesn’t meet their current needs.Even its biggest champion, Emirates, is looking to shift some of its orders to smaller planes.
Qantas, the Australian flag carrier, which has 12 of the huge planes has officially cancelled the rest of its 2006 order which still had eight planes to go. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told a meeting of Oneworld alliance leaders that “We’re very happy with what we’ve got,..We don’t see a use for any more.”
Two other Oneworld carriers at the event also indicated they are backing away; Malaysia has already stopped flying its six planes except for the pilgrimage season to Mecca, and British Airways officials is focused on smaller wide-bodies, having concluded that the A380 is now too expensive to buy and too expensive to operate.
With the potential loss of 20 or more Emirates orders and now the Qantas order, it is likely that Airbus will be forced to close production fairly soon.
Airbus have just announced that they are stopping production, with the last A380s scheduled for delivery in 2021.